Go Ds

North have improved and GC may have done way more than turn the corner. Each week we'll know more but right now we don't quite know the full extent of the 'damage'. Right now Katrina 's right.

No, kicking a soccer ball and practising torps, bananas etc and kicking short and long distances and when fresh and when exhausted , with a breeze, against a breeze, with a waterlogged ball yada yada yada all help overall with kicking skills. No one's gonna try kicking bananas with a soccer ball. I'd wager the huge majority of AFL players could kick 20m since puberty and if suddenly our players can't that's more likely due to lack of confidence or morale, maybe complacency and maybe lack of fitness. The shape of a ball won't fix those things though maybe a break from a Sherrin ,while still practising everything else , may help slightly.

Umm, people don't know soccer balls are round? Really?! Can you elaborate your point? I don't want to just dismiss how it sounds. As I said kicking a soccer ball is still kicking practice which, same as torps, banana kicks, dribble kicks, help reinforce the biomechanics of kicking. Kicking a soccer ball for half an hour isn't going to have players un-learn how to kick a Sherrin just the same as ending a training session with 30 mins of practising banana kicks won't ruin a midfielder's kicks two days later.

I'm not sure how full-on the soccer practice is and how much the tactics would rub off. But I agree some soccer could be a good inclusion in training. Hand-eye coordination, ball control, kicking ( including toe pokes and longer kicks off the carpet), teamwork, positioning and something more interesting than running laps. And changing things up can keep players refreshed and on their toes. Just as long it doesn't replace essential Aussie rules training drills the criticism seems rather silly.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. Hawthorn had an amazing run from 1983 to 1991. Even their 2 previous flags in 1976 and 1978 were arguably part of the same era. Then they waited 17 years for their second era to start, i.e. an average 'drought'. Now they're 9 and a half years into a mini-mini-drought. Maybe they win another flag soon but there's no guarantees. Hawk fans would be beaming ATM but with no actual proof yet of an astoundingly fast rebuild it's all speculation and assumptions. Is it more kudos to the recruiters than to decisions to move along ageing stars about 8 years ago ? Is the Hawks resurgence because the direct replacements are now fully realising their potential?

IMHO it needs to be when he's lost the backing/faith of the players. Sacking a coach is a drastic measure that cannot just be a kneejerk reactions. Do it badly and can create a rift between players divided on the sacking or between the players and / or the rest of the coaching staff and the administration. Either way morale might take years to restore. I wasn't alive in1965 but it sounds like the sacking of Norm Smith set us back for many, many years. It's easy to forget how many coaches never win a flag. Even the ones that do usually take more than a couple of years. Goodwin won his in his fifth year. If a new coach is 'flag-ready' in 2030 it could be that Gawn, Petracca etc are no longer topliners and we look back and wonder if there was still a flag in them somewhere round 2027 that we blew with a coach change. Honestly I can imagine worst case scenarios that have Goody fired after the next game even. Really there's no obvious breaking point. But I really feel like either the large majority of the players or Goody are best placed to make the decision.

Shouldn't that be the silhouette of a Bin? 😁

We've lost confidence - we've hardly won a game in 9 or 10 months. It's so hard to predict a lot of AFL stuff. We're not in the inner sanctum to know just how bad or temporary the current slump is. Eventually teams turn things around and maybe suddenly everything - many things - click again. But who knows? I do wish the harsher criticism would go away. It doesn't help and potentially makes things worse.

Possibly earlier. There's no denying the last two games have been dreadful. If at some stage Goody loses the players' faith THEN he should go. I'm not sure they have yet.

It's like you've taken two of my favourite things - Demons in their lost-cause era and meetings so boring you actually want to go back to your boring paperwork - and blended them together like 'Jeff Goldblum' and The Fly for sexy results. 🤢

No, it isn't. A team that kicks 6 goal of the year contenders and takes 6 marks of the same standard will walk off the field embarrassed if they lose 6.17 to 27.13

It's easy to forget that winning creates confidence and that losing saps it and often extends winning or losing streaks. Hawthorn and Lions expect to win while Carlton and our Dees almost feel like they'll lose, especially when the other side is coming in the last quarter. The one up side is that things can change fairly quickly. A year ago Hawks were tripping over their shadows.

Nice stat. Then again St Kilda's recent years have been woeful and Carlton had 4 years where you could pencil in powerhouse Richmond beating them.

Exactly! While it's easy to mock buzzwords if a workplace is having more fun without interfering with them achieving their main goals it can but help. I hope this is the case with Melbourne and we leave them be to prove it.

Thank you! I really was getting annoyed that I somehow should've deduced this quickly